ATHLETICS: Julian Drew
WHEN Shadrack Hoff sliced more than five seconds off Matthews Temane’s eight-year-old national 5 000m record in Stellenbosch two weeks ago, it signalled the beginning of a new era for South African distance running.
In the dark years of the apartheid inspired sports boycott distance running turned in on itself in this country. When the boycott struck, the worldwide running boom was just kicking into gear. It was fuelled by the success of a few individuals like Frank Shorter and Bill Rodgers in America and the rising popularity of the big city marathons where New York led the way.
The rest of the world, South Africa included, laced up their running shoes and followed the American craze to jog their way to fitness. But while the Statue of Liberty held up the beacon which inspired cities from London to Tokyo to follow the big city marathon route, South Africa took a detour down an 88km cul-de-sac called the Comrades Marathon.
Comrades grew into the country’s biggest sporting event during this period and although it certainly helped to popularise road running, it also took a lot of talent away from the standard marathon and shorter distance events.
A parallel trend during these bleak years was the move away from track running by the emergent black athletes who were beginning to monopolise the longer distances. Track and field was a highly politicised arena which was controlled by the Broederbond through the cultivated leadership of Professor Charles Niewoudt.
Black athletes struggled to get invitations to coastal track events where good times could be run. They flocked instead to the more enlightened road running scene, enticed by the prize money, which was often an extended family’s only source of income, and the more equal opportunities to be found there.
As any coach will tell you, however, athletic success at the longer distances is founded on a healthy diet of track and cross country in the early years of development. A career on the roads comes later, often only when an athlete is approaching 30, and a look at many of the top marathon runners’ backgrounds will support this.
As top Kenyan coach John Velzian said on his recent trip to South Africa, “You don’t win Olympic medals by runing Comrades, you win medals by doing the 5 000, 10 000m and marathon.” Ultimately it is only Olympic success which will act as the catalyst for the growth of athletics in this country.
On South Africa’s return to the international fold it proved difficult to lure our most talented athletes back to the track where prize money and coastal opportunities were almost non-existent. Only now has the pendulum begun to swing back towards the conrerstone of the sport.
For that we can thank a change in attitude in the corridors of power which has seen more coastal distance races on the track calendar plus the vision of a few individuals. Foremost among these individuals is Kenny Bouwer. Over the past three years he has quietly gone about the business of assembling the finest squad of young talent in the country at Correctional Services in Pretoria.
A large part of Bouwer’s jigsaw fell into place last April when the injured Patrick Kaotsane together with Shadrack Hoff and Simon Morolong joined him from Rustenburg Platinum Mine. Hoff and Morolong were prodigious talents who gave an indication of their capabilities when they finished sixth and tenth in the 5 000m at the world junior championships in Seoul in 1992.
The first two across the line in that race, Haile Gebresilasie of Ethiopia and Ismael Kirui of Kenya, are now the world champions over 10 000m and 5 000m respectively.
Hoff’s last performance on the track prior to his record run in Stellenbosch had been in June 1993 at the African championships in Durban. In between he had concentrated on the road with a few sojourns over the country. “Last year when I was in America I ran some good races,” says Hoff. “In June I ran in the Peach Tree Classic in Atlanta and in the last kilmetre the Kenyans just ran away from myself and Simon (Morolong). My stamina was fine but I lacked speed.”
He finished ninth with a time of 28:20 for that 10km effort. “I didn’t speak to anyone about it but when I got back to South Africa in July I decided I wanted to go back to the track to improve my speed,” he says.
Bouwere too was begining to get his ideas across to his squad. “Most of the athletes enjoy track and cross contry but they need the money from road racing. At Correctional Services they get a good salary and the environment is conducive to disciplne and training so they don’t have the same pressures that force many runners to over-race on the road,” says Bouwer.
“It takes time to establish a relationship with athletes when they come from another coach but we would have long talks about what they wanted from the sport and eventually they all realised the need for track runing as part of their programe. The majority of the group now know what they have to do,” declares Bouwer.
Hoff’s record in Stellenbosch would appear to be just a sign of better things to come He is only in the first phase of his build-up for this season and is still doing a lot of mileage. “I was training hard on the track and I knew from my 400m times that I could go below 13:20,” says Hoff. “It was not so easy though because there was a lot of pressure on me and everyone expected me to win and run a fast time.”
Jacques van Rensburg was the man who was originally touted as going for the record at Stellenbosch but after the pacemakers had taken the field to 3 000m the pace slackened as Van Rensburg took over with a lap of 66 seconds.
“I decided then to go for it because I knew we were losing touch with the record. I ran the tenth lap in 61 seconds and just kept o pushing. It wasn’t difficult because I had been training for 62 second laps. All the others had prepared for 64 second laps and when I went no one else responded,” says Hoff.
Hoff’s record stands at 13:19.84 which far off Gebresilasie’s world record of 12:56.96 but by the time he gets to Gothenburg for the world championships in August he should be capable of putting the record in the more respectable sub 13:10 territory.
Hoff will be racing in Stellenbosch again on Saturday night at the boland Bank permit meeting, this time over 3 000m. “It is shorter than the 5 000m and Johan Fourie’s record is tough but if the weather is good he will run hard and se how close he can get,” says Bouwer.